82 



WHAT MR. DARWIN SAW. 



ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 



northward ; and, with the aid of a light breeze, they overtook 

 us at a rate of ten or fifteen miles an hour. The main body 

 filled the air from a height of twenty feet to that, as it ap- 

 peared, of two or three thousand above the ground ; " and the 



LOCUSTS. 



sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many 

 horses running to battle ;" or rather, I should say, like a 

 strong breeze passing through the rigging of a ship. They 

 were not so thick together but that they could escape a stick 

 waved backward and forward. The poor cottagers in vain 



